Armed Forces Day
by JDPhoenix
Summary: Holiday Chaos 4 The Olivers return home from celebrating Eric's birthday and learn why they should never watch the news.


_Author's Note: The forth in my Holiday Chaos Series: following St. George's Day, Arbor Day, and Mother's Day. _

_Disclaimer: I own nothing._

Armed Forces Day (also known as Eric's birthday—ironic, eh?)

By JDPhoenix

"I am exhausted," Tommy said, collapsing onto the couch.

He could hear Kimberly dropping the casserole dish in the sink and smiled at the steady beat of her heals coming into the living room.

"Me too," she said, falling into the armchair and grabbing the clicker. She turned the TV on and sighed, settling into the soft folds of the chair. It was a horrible looking chair—the once bright red fabric had long ago faded to a rusty brown—but one sit in it had convinced Kim that it was worth the crime of fashion. Tommy still hadn't worked up the guts to tell her that he'd found it on the side of the road while saving TJ and Cassie on Graduation Day. Those desert winds were probably what made the chair so soft in the first place.

"Hey!" Tommy yelled, flipping over to look at his wife.

"What?" Kim asked, not taking her eyes off the news.

"We've only been married for three weeks!"

"What's your point?"

"We're not supposed to become boring for at least another few months."

Kim turned away from the TV to look at Tommy as if he'd gone completely insane. "What are you talking about?"

"We're supposed to be hot and sexy and make all the other couples jealous of how we spend our nights. We're not supposed to come home and collapse onto the couch and fall asleep watching TV."

"Tommy," Kim said slowly, "we just got back from a full day on the Animarium, celebrating _your_ friend's birthday. I haven't been this tired since the Countdown."

Tommy shook his head then winced. He had landed in some blueberry bushes when trying to grab a Frisbee. "It was not that bad," he said, though he was pretty sure he wouldn't have been up to doing anything more than staying right where he was.

"Do you not remember the Countdown?" Kim asked. "The most I'd done in three years was stop the occasional mugger and suddenly I had to morph and fight off a whole army? Zack and I were the only ones living in LA and _he_ was in Australia filming a movie. It was horrible!"

"Yeah," Tommy sighed. "After I gave T.J. my powers I'd given up on the idea of ever saving the world again. I went to college—not intending to become the next Zordon, by the way—and one day Rocky, Adam, Jason, and I are all sitting in History, wondering why people who had risked everything to save the world were forced to listen to this dribble, when a green harpy walks through the door and starts attacking people." He laughed, "It was great."

Kim raised an eyebrow at him and although he couldn't see her, he could feel the force of her gaze.

"Until we realized the whole planet was under attack, at least."

Kim nodded and turned back to the TV. She was about to ask how he thought Eric had liked the box set of Godzilla DVDs they had given him, when several colorful blurs appeared on the screen.

"Thank you, Cassidy," Chip Clarkson, the main reporter for the station was saying. "And now, here we are with Dr. Fred Kelman, author of the new book _Power Strangers_. Now, Dr. Kelman, what got you interested in the Power Rangers?"

"Fred?" Kim breathed as the young man quickly recapped what it was like to grow up in Angel Grove.

"I knew we never should have told him that he could take classes at the community college while he was still in high school," Tommy growled, sitting up.

"The Power Rangers," Fred went on, "are an amazing asset to this planet. We have learned from events like the Countdown and from Terra Venture's reports that the Rangers give us some clout in intergalactic affairs—a fact for which we shall be forever grateful. The Rangers were our first interstellar ambassadors. The Space Rangers have told us that their predecessors traveled further out and are known by more people than any subsequent teams. But aside from the Space Rangers, we know very little about any of them. Even the Lightspeed Rescue team's identities are classified by the government."

"So," Clarkson said, "you think the Rangers should be more open about their identities?"

"Yes. These people are very important to the Earth's future. They have frequent meetings with several alien governments. The kings of Triforia and Edenoi have said that their first contacts with Earth came through the Rangers. And many of the enemies the Rangers fight are from other planets. The Rangers engage in their own private wars and Earth is their battlefield. How do we know that their enemies are our enemies? Perhaps it is their presence that draws these 'monsters' out."

"Idiot," Kim muttered.

"I can't believe I ever said he might grow up to be a Ranger," Tommy said.

Kim moaned. "I have to do the dishes." She pushed herself out of the chair and walked towards the door.

"No," Tommy cried, grabbing her wrist. He pulled her down onto the couch. "You stay."

"The food with get hard," Kim said, though she didn't try very hard to pull away.

"Let it," Tommy said, and kissed her neck.

They didn't do much except snuggle close to each other. Clarkson had begun asking Fred viewer questions by the time Kim started nodding off.

"Many of our viewers have asked if there is a specific Ranger color code," Clarkson said.

"Well, that is an interesting question," Fred answered. "Up until Blue Bay Harbor's team, most had a very basic system. Yellow and Pink for the women, and Red, Blue, and Black for the men. Occasionally Green would be substituted for Black, and of course the sixth Rangers tended to disobey any rules at all. But the Ninjas changed all that. Even if you take into account the fact that they combined two smaller than normal teams, their colors were still off—a woman wearing Blue and a man wearing Yellow. And then there are Reefside's Rangers. They seem to follow the original team's colors—I'm, of course, standing by the theory that the Green Ranger became the White Ranger—except for the Pink Ranger."

Kimberly sat up straight. She ignored Tommy's protests—she was sitting on his hip—and focused on the television.

"There are several theories flying around about these two teams and their deviations from the norm. But maybe they are proof that there isn't a norm—" Fred kept talking but Kim turned to Tommy.

"Why wasn't there a Pink Ranger?" she asked sweetly.

Tommy didn't care about his hip so much anymore. "Um, I was angry?"

Km harrumphed and pushed off his hip so hard that he almost wished it would break. She stormed into the kitchen and began viciously washing the dishes.

* * *

Adam grabbed the remote off Rocky's lap and paused the movie. 

"Hey!" Rocky cried. "_The Final Frontier_ is a classic, you can't just pause it in the middle!"

"And I'm not about to miss something important just because you won't pause," Adam countered, pulling the door open. Most people would say it was foolish not to look through the peephole, but there wasn't much that would scare a former Ranger.

"Aw, man!" Adam moaned, taking in the man on the other side of the door.

Tommy Oliver was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt they'd seen him in several hours earlier, along with a green windbreaker that was only on his left arm. He was holding a duffel bag in his right hand—it was stuffed with clothes and zipped only halfway since a large stack of papers was sticking out of it.

Rocky turned on the couch and groaned. "We just got rid of Carter! Why does every married Ranger think they can crash here when their wives get angry at them?"

Tommy trudged inside and collapsed next to Rocky.

"You've only been married three weeks, man," Adam said, "what happened?"

"Yeah," Rocky added, "you two seemed so happy at Eric's birthday party. What could happen in a few hours?"

"She asked why there was no Dino Pink."

Rocky and Adam whistled.

"I'll break out the beers," Rocky said.

Tommy looked around dazedly. He had forgotten how scary Kim could be when she was really angry. He froze when he looked at the TV.

"The world has officially gone mad," he said.

"Why?" Adam asked, taking the beer Rocky offered him.

"A Vulcan is laughing."

Rocky laughed. "Come on, man, you need some Trek."

* * *

_AN: Kudos to anyone who knows who Fred is! And, just so you know, I love _Star Trek V_ so back off! The next one is Towel Day. _

_Remember to review!_


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